Nokia 1 goes on sale in Kenya starting April 16th

HMD Global’s cheapest smartphone, the Nokia 1, is set to go on sale in Kenya on 16th April, according to a statement from the local arm of the company.

The Nokia 1 was unveiled in February during the Mobile World Congress alongside other Nokia-branded devices like the flagship Nokia 8 Sirocco, the desirable Nokia 7 Plus, the Nokia 6 2018 and a relic that saw the world even before I could learn to construct a sentence in English, the Nokia 8110.

The Nokia 1 stands out from that impressive list by virture of being the very first HMD Global device to run on Android Go, the stripped down version of Android Oreo (at the moment) meant for entry-level Android smartphones that have low memory (1GB RAM or less).

At MWC, the Nokia 1 was not alone. It shared the Android Go glory with 5 other devices, the ZTE Tempo Go, the Alcatel 1x, the General Mobile GM8 Go, the Lava Z50 and the Micromax Bharat Go. The latter two are Indian market exclusives while it is not yet clear when the other 3 will be available in Kenya. So, at least in the near future, the Nokia 1 will be the go-to Android Go smartphone in the market.

For just Kshs 9,500, the Nokia 1 will have to fend off stiff competition from the Tecno and Infinix brands, the Transsion Holdings duo that dominates the budget smartphone segment not just in Kenya but across the African continent, as well as other devices from the HMD Global family that are priced just 1,000, 2,000 or thereabout shillings more than the Nokia 1 like the Nokia 2.

Either Tecno or Infinix, or both, is expected to release an Android Go device, if they keep their word (their mother company did commit to that).